My Explore Experience

This time of year, USC’s got a lot of prospective students coming to campus for Explore, and I couldn’t be more excited – Explore USC was the reason I decided to come to USC! You get to learn about the student, talk to and be hosted by students, and get a slice of life as a student here. I remember I loved getting to meet people – prospective students like me, and talk about what we were looking for in colleges.

It’s definitely a crazy, overwhelming experience thinking about where to go to college. You have to consider what kind of environment is right for you. High school for me was a super competitive environment, and that taught me a lot, but it wasn’t what I wanted for college. I wanted to continue being challenged, yes, but I wanted that challenge to come in a form that motivated me to learn and to collaborate and to become a great engineer, and the Explore program showed me that I could do that here.

At Explore, I met my host and a bunch of her friends who took me around campus. I remember visiting Ground Zero, a performance cafe with the best milkshakes, and I stayed in Birnkrant, the dorm I ended up living at the year after. I actually still keep in touch with my host – she’s been a great mentor and friend for me over the past two years. The people you’ll meet at Explore can be resources for you for years onward, and like me, you might end up living with some of the friends you make at the program, two years later!

More than anything, Explore is a chance for you to see yourself as a potential student here. I remember being confused about what I wanted in a college – I had an idea of where I wanted to go to college before coming to USC, but I didn’t know what, for me, was going to be the deciding factor between the two schools I was most excited about being a student at. When you’re looking at schools that all have amazing engineering programs, the thing to consider is if the culture of the school is one you’d be able to thrive in. Honestly, there’s no better way to do that than to come out and live the life of a student, even if just for a day or two.